King of Pop Michael Jackson, Dead at age 50

***Art*** · 06-26-2009, 12:33 AM

In case any of you actually want a bit of a background on why I phrased the first post the way I did...

Cardiac Arrest is exactly what it sounds like: The heart ceasing to beat. The ambulance crew performed CPR on scene and on the way to UCLA Med Center. Throughout this time, he is still not considered to be legally dead.

From the reports I read, the CPR may have been effective enough to keep him technically alive, as there were reports that he was in a coma. Death was pronounced at UCLA med center by a physician.

So, he suffered the cardiac arrest at home, but was not legally considered dead until he was at UCLA Medical Center.

smhatahy · 06-26-2009, 01:41 AM

MJ is not dead... he's just chilling with Tupac and Elvis

petrafan91 · 06-26-2009, 09:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by petrafan91

WOW!! An EMT? I work for the local Medical Examiner! I see/study death all of the time!

I would like to publicly apoligize to Art. I didn't mean to insult his intelligence. I was just trying to say that I knew what I was talking about. I'm sure that he is a very smart man that is good at his job. I was not saying that he didn't know what he was talking about. I meant that the LA Times didn't know what they were talking about.

Sorry for the confusion,
petrafan91

**thesteve** · 06-26-2009, 09:39 AM

I hate to go on a tangent, but you're wrong, at least in a strict sense, petrafan91. Cardiac arrest is not equivalent to biological death. As someone who works with a medical examiner you should know (or eventually learn) that cardiac arrest can lead to death, but that because of the development of CPR and defibrillators, to state simply that cardiac arrest is equivalent to death is a bit misleading. People are walking around all over the world that have had cardiac arrest. My understanding is that today, clinical death is declared when brain function ceases. At this point it is considered an irreversible condition where the brain simply cannot be restarted. This differs from cardiac arrest as the heart can be restarted.

funkStrat_97 · 06-26-2009, 09:50 AM

Wow. Sad inded, but more of a shock. I felt this way when James Brown died because these guys had that bigger than life mistiqe about them. Michael Jackson can not die be cause he is Micahel Jackson. But we know that all humans are mortal creatures. It's rather ironic, though, that for all he had accomplished and all that he had that his life was so empty. It's like he never realy developed into who he could have or should have been and was trying despartely (with disasterous results) to experience the childhood that he never really had. I was really conflicted when all the child abuse allegations came out against him and never really made up my mind how much of it (if any) was actually true. But his music is timeless. There will never be another Michael Jackson; he was a true musical treasure.

petrafan91 · 06-26-2009, 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thesteve

I hate to go on a tangent, but you're wrong, at least in a strict sense, petrafan91. Cardiac arrest is not equivalent to biological death. As someone who works with a medical examiner you should know (or eventually learn) that cardiac arrest can lead to death, but that because of the development of CPR and defibrillators, to state simply that cardiac arrest is equivalent to death is a bit misleading. People are walking around all over the world that have had cardiac arrest. My understanding is that today, clinical death is declared when brain function ceases. At this point it is considered an irreversible condition where the brain simply cannot be restarted. This differs from cardiac arrest as the heart can be restarted.

I realize that. I was saying that cardiac arrest is not a cause of death. You can ask a coroner, cardiac arrest can not be put as the main cause of death on a death certificate. Basically I was saying that everyone who has died has experienced cardiac arrest.

**thesteve** · 06-26-2009, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by petrafan91

I realize that. I was saying that cardiac arrest is not a cause of death. You can ask a coroner, cardiac arrest can not be put as the main cause of death on a death certificate. Basically I was saying that everyone who has died has experienced cardiac arrest.

Ah...thanks for the clarification. "Everyone who has died has experienced cardiac arrest" is much different than "everybody dies from cardiac arrest."